While taking in the stark beauty of the Arizona desert, you might notice some of the vegetation appears to have 8in-long, chartreuse-colored spiders crawling out of its branches. Chill. Not only are these lil' wormy monsters harmless legumes, they're actually edible. And, more importantly, they (especially the honey-mesquite variety) taste like organic Skittles. You can pop them right off the branch and eat the pods like jumbo green beans, or mash them into a fine powder to make flour, jelly, or even cocktails. See, Skittles do grow from trees. They're just a little uglier. The only catch is the alien that eventually hatches inside your stomach if you eat more than three.

The author of this blog post readily admits to not having sampled mesquite pods, but if they're the grossest thing Thrillist could come up with for our state, then Arizona appears to be doing pretty well. As the Daily Star noted, the organization Desert Harvesters hosts a mesquite-milling festival in Tucson every summer. And mesquite flour is a favorite among the gluten-intolerant.

Arizona's entry on this list looks even better when you compare it with some other states' "grossest" foods — notably the pickle dog (Minnesota), scrapple (Pennsylvania) and Brunswick stew (Virginia). Those all might be delicious, but the Arizona Highways staff probably won't find out anytime soon.